


Octavia, Baby

by BeaRyan



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Ark society creation, F/M, Gen, Not Shippy, Secret Paternity, Teen Pregnancy, canon adjacent, fill in fic, grounder society creation, mention of abortion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-10
Updated: 2015-02-10
Packaged: 2018-03-11 13:58:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3328895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BeaRyan/pseuds/BeaRyan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Challenge: Kane is Octavia’s father but we don’t all hate him by the time the truth is out.  Canon verse.  One shot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Octavia, Baby

It may have been called Camp Jaha, nominally led by Abby and effectively run by Clarke, but Marcus felt a responsibility to these people, his people, and he was attuned to the signs that something was amiss. The group of Grounders who usually stationed themselves near the back exit was smaller than it should have been. Bellamy tended to lurk the wire, watching for movement in the woods. He should have been near the gate when the hunters returned, ready to pretend he was having a casual conversation while really extracting a mission report that was far above his grade as a low ranking member of the guard. Despite a thorough visual search of the yard, Marcus couldn’t find him. 

Marcus didn't even wait until the gate was unlocked to admit him before demanding, "What happened?" 

"The Blake girl got herself in trouble," the guard mumbled. "That's what happens when you get too close to Grounders." 

Marcus drew on all his years of experience in the guard and politics to keep his expression neutral. He was quietly proud of Octavia, but her fearlessness scared him. Indra was working on it, brutally pounding in sense in a way Marcus couldn’t bring himself to consider, but maybe not fast enough. "How much trouble?" 

"Nine months worth, then eighteen years more if she has her way. Grounders are backing her, but she's sixteen. Not gonna happen." 

Marcus shoved his gun at his lieutenant with an order to check it in and ran for the conference room. The people of the Ark had always been focused on conserving resources and reducing population. There was only one answer to an unwed, orphaned teenager and it ended quickly and in a doctor’s office. If she had a living parent there to argue for her it would be different, but no one looked at Bellamy and saw a doting grandfather. The Grounders on the other hand had always been desperate for more citizens, barely able to keep up with the depletion of their villages by Reapers, disease, famine and everything else that plagued them. They fought, literally, for every life. The more the two groups merged, the more issues like this would have to be decided. Today maybe he could convince them to limit the discussion to just Octavia. 

He’d wanted to tell the world the truth since he’d learned it. She was an amazing young woman and he couldn’t claim credit for any of it. She’d been so brave when sent to the SkyBox, and once on the ground she hadn’t let a limited early life keep her from embracing all that Earth had to offer. He’d been following her example - trying to be someone she wouldn’t mind knowing - when he’d used his time in Lexa’s capital to learn about the Grounders. He’d been too hard on Bellamy at times, he knew that, but Bellamy was the only father-figure Octavia had known. Marcus’ feelings about that were complicated at best. Today there was finally something he could do for her. She needed him. If he could make this work out for her, maybe she could find a place for him in her life. 

By the time he made it to the conference room, Indra and Abby were only feet apart. Bellamy was trying to keep Octavia behind him with the Grounders protecting her from the rear, safe from Abby's armed but intimidated guards, but Octavia had long given up letting others think they were in charge. If Indra hadn’t been in her way she’d have charged Abby herself. 

"She is sixteen," Abby stated through clenched teeth. "A child. This is ridiculous. She can't do this on her own." 

"She isn't alone," Indra growled.

"Are your people going to stop beating her for a few months? Then what? Who takes care of her child when you get her killed." 

"I have Lincoln. I have a houman," Octavia yelled, using the grounder word for her relationship status. What that meant within Ark society was another point that would one day have to be pulled apart. 

Indra and Abby each gave her a look that only fueled Octavia's anger. The unreliability of Lincoln was the one thing the two women could agree on. His drug addiction wasn’t his fault, but it was still a problem.

Marcus worked his way through the Grounders until he was near enough to Abby and Indra that he could participate in their “discussion” without raising his voice. "Abby, she has a family." 

"Bellamy? Every time we blink he's slipping off to the woods with some half considered plan that causes more problems than it solves and you think he's the answer?" 

"She has me," Indra responded. 

"For how long? How long until you lose interest in her and tie her to a pole?" Abby accused. 

Marcus’ voice was quiet but strong. "She has me."

Neither woman acknowledged that he'd spoken, but Bellamy had heard him. "Are you her father?" 

Octavia voice quivered, the first time she'd sounded like a child since Marcus had seen her on the ground. "Bell?" 

"Dad was really sick the year you were born, O. He could barely move. Mom never admitted it, but I wondered." Bellamy turned his attention to Marcus. "So it's you?" 

"I didn't know until half an hour before your mother was floated, when the DNA test came back. She begged me not to say anything. You had a good story about parents who were so in love your mother had to have you, and she asked me watch out for you while you were in protective custody." 

Bellamy huffed in disgust. "Protective custody? You mean the Sky Box?" 

Octavia was shaking. "You had an affair with my mother while my father was dying."

"No.”

“I know where babies come from.”

“Not this time you don’t.” Marcus scanned the room, trying to find somewhere to rest his eyes, someone sympathetic. It wasn’t a gentle crowd, but Octavia had the greatest right to know, so he looked to her. “My wife and I tried for a child for years. It didn’t happen, but her mother was chancellor, her father was head of medical and between the two of them they could get her anything she wanted. They sat us down one day, told her to pad her belly, and said in six and a half months we'd have a baby. If we reported the conspiracy, we’d all float. You'd have been an orphan and so would Bellamy." 

"So you took the third option and left me under the floor?" Octavia spat.

"No. You were supposed to live with us. They could have faked the paperwork. You’d have been ours, but when your mother was eight months pregnant there was a coup. My in-laws died, along with my wife. I didn’t know who was carrying the baby and when no one ever came to me for money or favors I figured you weren’t alive. Your mother said she didn’t know who’d hired her. Her only contact was with my father-in-law in medical.” Marcus huffed a dry laugh. “He had you logged as a tumor. He died and no one ever came for you, so your mother did the best she could."

“She sold me.” Octavia’s hands dropped to her belly, covering the child that hadn’t even begun to show. 

“She took medicines to ease her husband’s pain and she was going to give a child to a family that desperately wanted one. At this moment, while other people try to decide your baby’s future, you have some idea of how much we wanted you. If I’d known you were alive... “ He ran his hands over his face, wiping away the tears that had threatened. “You had to grow up too quickly and I missed the first part of your life, but if there’s anything I can do to make the next part turn out the way you want it, I will.” 

“Lincoln and I are going to have this baby,” she said. 

He nodded and turned to Abby. “Chancellor, you’re the only one against her plan. She has familial support. You have no legal recourse.”

“This is a mistake,” Abby said. “She’s a child.” 

“You keep saying that, but it hasn’t changed anything yet. The truth is what it is; the kids are grown, no matter how much we wish it was different.” 

“This is on you,” Abby said. She spun towards the door and gestured for her guards to follow. 

He looked towards Octavia. “I’ll do as much as you’ll let me.”

“I don’t need you.” 

“I know, but I’m here anyway.” 

Indra spoke. “My people have a role for grandfathers. They change diapers, make food, tell stories. They mind the little monsters so their mothers can work.” 

Marcus nodded. “If she’ll let me.” He suspected Indra was trying to demean him, but his heart beat a little faster. He’d never gotten the chance to care for his own child. Being a Grounder grandpa sounded like the answer to a long deferred dream.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments make my day.


End file.
